1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a cost estimation system for an injection-molded product, and more particularly, to a cost estimation system that can estimate a cost required to fabricate a mold, as well as a total cost required to manufacture an injection-molded product.
2. Description of the Related Art
An estimation system for automatically calculating an estimated sum of an injection-molded product has been known. With such a system, upon input of selected fabrication conditions, the total cost of the injection-molded product is automatically estimated.
However, there is no system existing that can estimate not only an injection-molded product cost, but also a cost of mold itself used in the injection molding process. There are many complicated factors in estimating the costs of a mold that directly affect the estimated sum. Especially, it takes time to estimate the processing (or machining) cost of a so-called variable part of the mold, which varies case by case and characterizes the shape of the injection-molded product. In addition, the estimation of the variable part processing cost is likely to vary depending on the estimator.
Under these situations, demand for a system that can estimate the costs of a mold, as well as the costs of a molded product, when fabrication conditions of the molded product are selected, has been increasing.